Characterisation Adrian Brown The National Archives UK Overview
Characterisation Adrian Brown The National Archives, UK
Overview • Develop tools and services to characterise the significant properties of digital objects, to support: – Development of preservation plans – Validation of preservation actions (evaluating change) • The subproject considers: – Representation properties – Inherent properties
Aims & Objectives • To deliver: – Methodologies for describing significant properties – Tools and services for automating measurement and comparison of these properties – Recommendations for improving the preservation characteristics of digital object types
Aims & Objectives
Achievements (Year 1) • Characterisation registry • Property description and extraction methodology and tools • Characterisation tool framework
Characterisation registry • First iteration registry (bringing PRONOM to its next generation) • Persistent Unique Identifier scheme for registry information • Support for registry-driven characterisation tool framework
Describing and extracting characteristics • Extensible Characterisation Description Language (XCDL) • Extensible Characterisation Extraction Language (XCEL)
XCDL & XCEL tiff Extractor tiff XCDL 93% Comparer Migrator png tiff XCEL. . . XCEL png XCDL
XCDL/XCEL tools • Command line interface for extractor • Preliminary specification for comparator • GUI for extractor experiments
GUI example
Characterisation tool framework • Registry-driven framework for automated deployment of tools • Initial tools implemented: – DROID – JHOVE – Java POI (MS Office documents) – JAXP (XML validation)
Planned activities (Year 2) • Final XC*L specifications • Characterisation registry (iteration 2) • Representation Information Registries White Paper • XCDL extraction tool • Characterisation tool wrapper specification • Emerging technologies report
Thank you!
- Slides: 15